Sex and death

Is illness sex-blind? Sometimes, but there are clear cases of a sex bias

On average, women in the UK can expect to live more than four years longer than men, though they will spend more time in later life in ill health. Such differences in the incidence of disease may reflect the effects of X-linked conditions such as haemophilia, which affects men more than women.

Differing actions of sex hormones may also have a sex-biased effect – for example, women tend to suffer more from weaker bones (osteoporosis) due to low levels of oestrogen after the menopause. Women are also more likely to suffer from the autoimmune disorders lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Sex differences can also be seen in brain and behavioural disorders.

A schematic view of sex differences in disease. For each condition, the more icons there are, the more common the disease is in one sex compared to the other.

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